chicken-in-a-basket n. in attributive uses, connoting unsophisticated, unfashionable, or unoriginal entertainment, especially in a remote or rustic environment; in the form chicken-in-a-basket circuit, a series of performances by an unpopular or unfashionable group or entertainer at remote, small, or undesirable locations or events. Also chicken-in-the-basket. Editorial Note: Chicken-in-a-basket circuit is similar to rubber chicken circuit and mashed potato circuit in the United States. Etymological Note: Chicken-in-a-basket is a cheap, simple dish common at cheap, simple restaurants or dinner shows. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
There my be an earlier reference from TV. On “The Bob Newhart Show”, Dr. Hartley took his group to a retreat at “Ken and Mitzi’s of the Woods”. The place had a really lame floor show and the only thing they could get was creamed-chicken-in-a-basket.
There are a number of earlier uses of chicken-in-a-basket associated with lame spectacles or cheesy downmarket entertainment, but the poultry dish doesn’t show up as a lexical item—that is, it appears specifically as something you eat, not as a figurative term that lends connotations to something else.